Sandra Cox's Blog, page 269

Too Cute

The lovely and talented Helen Woodall shared this with me.

It's The Weekend

Enjoy the video. Enjoy the weekend. I'll be back Monday.

Shameless Self-Promotion

Whew! I finally finished formatting Power Stones.
Like most folks, I have always loved crystals. But I really got interested in them several years ago when I started writing The Amulet Series  and needed power stones. I researched and found what stones were associated with healing, beauty, creativity and power. While researching, I discovered many stones' associations overlap. For instance: Bustamite is known for health and protection; Cat's Eye-Beauty and health; Emerald-love and mediation; Lapis-fidelity and serenity and so.
Power Stones is broken down into several different categories and talks about the stones associated with: color, beauty, careers, health, love, relationships, prosperity and meditation.
If you'd like a copy you can purchase it at Amazon for $6.00.
http://www.amazon.com/Power-Stones-Sandra-Cox/dp/1481827618/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358713624&sr=1-1&keywords=Power+Stones+by+Sandra+Cox
It's also available in e for $2.99
http://www.amazon.com/Power-Stones-ebook/dp/B007NDLDCG/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_kin?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358714337&sr=1-1&keywords=Power+Stones+by+Sandra+Cox
Or...you can enter the contest at Goodreads. I'll be giving away three copies.
http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/42382-power-stones
And that's it for my shameless self-promotion. Enjoy the rest of your day.

ET:Seven Point Eight

BLURB:
Seven Point Eight:
'The Truth Will Set You Free'
In the second installment of the Seven Point Eight series, the legacy of the OOBE project weighs heavily on the conscience of Dr. Paul Eldridge. Tahra Mamoun needs to muster all her courage and venture back into the alternate dimensions of reality. Through a series of challenging, surreal and frightening experiences, she comes to comprehend the destructive power she can yield and must face her own demons in the process.
Paul continues his quest to understand the ancient knowledge of the cosmos, while dark forces seek to hijack his research to further a secret agenda. With their lives in jeopardy, Paul and Tahra confront their enemies against an international backdrop featuring the pyramids of Giza and the peaks of Switzerland.
Meanwhile, Sam and Ava endeavor to uncover their past, even though it may irrevocably change their lives.
In a tale of courage and tragedy, love and betrayal, their lives are interwoven around the demons of one man, Max Richardson, who'll stop at nothing to achieve his objectives.
Written in the style of a TV series, Seven Point Eight draws together quantum physics, psychic powers, alternate dimensions, time travel, past lives, ancient wisdom and conspiracy in a soap opera for the soul.
It’s the ideal read for lovers of sci-fi, contemporary fantasy, paranormal, metaphysics, ‘Lost’, ‘Fringe’, ‘Touch’, and Dan Brown books.
EXCERPT:Seven Point Eight: The Second ChronicleExcerpt 3
Through an archway to the left of me, a figure I barely recognized emerged. Her energy body was dark like old red wine and her limp hair hung around her sallow face, accentuating her black eyes, and the dark circles beneath them. She looked emaciated, and her energy body appeared scarred and somewhat distorted. I realized in horror who this sad creature may be. “Emilie?”She didn’t respond to her name, and at that moment, I felt simply confused.“This isn’t Emile,” I protested.The torture master relished my shock and disbelief.“Oh, but it is. I promised you Emilie, and Emile you have.”I felt out of body tears well up in my eyes in frustration.“You lied, this isn’t Emilie. You tricked me into returning, coming back here for nothing. You cheated!”He laughed, and I hated him for his sense of superiority. “As I said, let’s hope there’s still something for you to save.”She walked over to me, but not in friendship or as someone pleased to see me. Her red pupils locked onto mine, an unexpected deep hatred for me lurking behind her eyes.“What have you done to her?” I asked the torture master.He grinned again, and I wished I could knock the smile off his face as it made me feel nauseous.“We have merely shown her the power that comes from pain. Pain cuts deep; it reaches our innermost fears and desires. You should hope that Emilie does not carry any grudges against you, what lies in the subconscious will now emerge, to be gloriously embraced.” At this point, I began to worry.The background noise in the arena quietened now, as if someone had rapidly turned down the volume control. I couldn’t back out, however disgusted I felt with the whole thing. While the torture master hadn’t been entirely truthful, I still had no choice, because there was a chance, the smallest chance that there was something worth saving.A rumbling sound filled the air and as it reached a crescendo, I distinctly heard a drum roll. Looking around for the drummer, I eventually spotted a giant skull with the top cut off. Skin had been stretched over the space, and one of the thresher dwarves beat it with all four arms.Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!He struck it hard, and the vibrations reached into my extra-dimensional bones.Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!The audience banged their staffs on the ground, in time to the rhythm.Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!“Let the first rite begin,” the torture master said. “This is the essence of rivalry and competition. It is a battle to attain dominion with the utmost violence, and subjugate the opponent into a painful submission. The rite will teach you to give and receive the ecstasy of pain, so that you may taste its fruits for the first time.”I didn’t want to fight Emilie, but to get her out of here I had no other option. Someone threw an array of weapons into the arena: spiked clubs, long spears, skewers, long and circular saw blades, leather gloves studded with razor blades, spiked knuckle dusters, and hooked knives. She almost salivated over the selection of implements, while I looked at them in horror.“Fight!” came the call.

AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Marie Harbon has worked in both the retail and fitness industry. She has a degree in sport and fitness, and taught group exercise for several years, delivering aerobics and Pilates. For two years, she delivered BTEC sport courses and has also instructed dance and sport with children.
Marie is a member of Nottingham Writers Studio, Her future plans include not only completing the 'Seven Point Eight' series, but involve writing YA, children's and adult books, short stories, novellas and scripts.
Aside from writing, Marie is a self-confessed fabric geek and purveyor of beautiful, often ostentatious bags, bustiers and clothing. She lives in the town of Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, which is in England.

Website - www.marieharbon.comFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/marie.harbonFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/SevenPointEightChroniclesTwitter - @marieharbon
Marie will be awarding a free copy of Seven Point Eight: The First Chronicle via Smashwords and a 12 ebook swagbag including, sci-fi, fantasy, paranormal and YA titles to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour.
The tour dates can be found here:
http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2012/12/virtual-excerpt-tour-seven-point-eight.html

Janis Joplin

Janis Joplin was born January 19, 1943. If she were still alive, she'd have recently celebrated her 70th birthday. And no doubt have celebrated in style. Like millions of others, I loved to hear anything she belted out.  I don't think I could pick a favorite, but it would probably come down to either Me And Bobbie McGee or Cry Baby. She was with Big Brother and The Holding Company from 1966-1968. Solo from 1969-1970. She appeared at Woodstock and Madison Square Garden in '69. Wherever she's currently at in her cycle of life, I'm guessing she's still singing.

SBB: A World Apart

BLURB:  
Demetrius makes his first mistake when he lets his best friend Halcyon marry Eleyna, the love of his life, without saying a word. On the day of the wedding, he walks away from the Elencheran town of Dove's Meadow and joins the army.

He makes his second mistake when the pirate Black Iris tricks him into letting dozens of men, women and children die in a fire. Demetrius is imprisoned in grief and disgrace.

But he can atone. The Black Iris is dead. The Ivory Rose has risen to the top of the pirates and is leading brutal raids on the coast. If Demetrius can capture and kill her, he'll win his pardon.

And then Demetrius discovers the Ivory Rose is Eleyna. He must decide which will be his third mistake: losing his last chance at a pardon or destroying the one woman he's ever loved.
EXCERPT: From Chapter 6: Eleyna & Halcyon (29617)
Demetrius made no response, he was lost in a battle all of his own making now. The challenge of Halcyon was forgotten, he had overcome that, but he now had to succeed in a new struggle – to be a soldier. Demetrius had decided to turn his back on the shepherd life that his father desperately wanted for him in favour of following and emulating his grandfather. Deep down, Demetrius hoped that if he made his grandfather proud then Granicus would reveal the most sought after secret in all of Dove’s Meadow – why Granicus had chosen not to join the Order and bring untold fame to the town.
Demetrius heard another rumble of thunder and between the Green and Pirels Mountains he saw lightning strike briefly. His clothes were now sodden and his feet were uncomfortable in his shoes but Demetrius was beyond such constraints. Dove’s Meadow didn’t feel like it was just below him to the left. Instead, it was almost as if just the narrow walk along the perimeter wall existed and that losing his balance either way would see him fall into a void of nothingness. Everything hinged on Demetrius’ continued steps.
Granicus had once told Demetrius of one of the rebellions he had fought when he was in the army. The rebels had lined up to take on the might of the Himordian army on a sodden battlefield with rain, thunder and lightning doing nothing to turn any man or woman from the conflict. Demetrius imagined he was in that moment now, facing the same dangers that his grandfather had faced.
AUTHOR INFORMATION:David Brown could be considered a fantasy fanatic, especially since he has spent the last 10 years developing a 47,000-year history for his fictional world of Elenchera. When converting his obsession into literary form, David commits himself to a rigorous writing and editing process before his work can meet his approval. Combined with the critical eye of his wife and a BA Hons in History and English, David's dedication leads him to his goal of inspiring readers through heartfelt stories and characters. Although David is inspired primarily by fantasy fiction, he also finds his muse in the form of anime, world cinema, history, and biographies. His own books, Fezariu's Epiphany and A World Apart, and the in-progress Ansel's Remorse and The Stars Beneath the Parapets combine aspects from worlds both old and new into compelling tales of a world not soon forgotten. David himself certainly does not lack a spirit of adventure; in fact, he left his job in 2007 in order to spend a month travelling. Second only to meeting and marrying his wife, David counts this as one of the most amazing experiences of his life. LINKS:
Website – http://elenchera.comBlog – http://tweeding.comTwitter - @elencheraFacebook - davidmbrownauthorGoodreads - http://bit.ly/Nhagx3Amazon US - http://amzn.to/TT7AfhAmazon UK - http://amzn.to/SbbQBDSmashwords - http://bit.ly/R7VitO
 

David will be awarding a $25 Amazon Gift Card to a randomly drawn commenter during the tours.
The tour dates can be found here:  http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2012/11/super-book-blast-world-apart-by-david-m.html 

It's Friday and I'm Visiting Sherry Silver

It's Friday and I'm visiting with good pal and fellow author Sherry Silver. If you're in the vicinity stop by and say 'hey.' http://sherryink.blogspot.com/2013/01/interview-with-author-sandra-cox.html
Have a great one. I'll be back Monday.
~*~
 Did you read this article? Yikes!
http://news.yahoo.com/end-near-doomsday-clock-holds-5-til-midnight-232147095.html

Help Me Celebrate

To celebrate my birthday, I'm giving away free downloads to my blogger friends. If you'd like a download  of either:
Shardai,
Akasha,
Makita
Power Stones
or
Vampire Bay
just shoot me an email @: sandracox1@gmail.com
P-A-R-T-Y.

VBT: Rough Harbor

­­­­­ With us today is Andrea Stein. Andrea, please tell us about Girl Mogul Media. GirllMogul Media is the name for my publishing company which covers my books and my blog.  I call it my parent company for all of my writing endeavors from publishing books to the GirlMogul Blog which is combo mom log/personal development blog and store.Rough Harbor sounds intriguing. What gave you the idea for this story? Rough Harbor is a contemporary romance with a hint of suspense. There's a bad guy and a bit of a mystery but the focus is really on the relationship between Noah and Caitlyn former high school flames who are reunited after ten years apart.  They left on bad terms but there is still a lot of unfinished business between the two of them.  I was inspired to write the story because of its setting - its set in a coastal town in the Northeast - similar to where I grew up and I have always loved the quiet beauty of the water.  And I'm one of those people who actually married their high school sweethearts so it was fun to play with the what ifs of a relationship that didn't go as planned.How long have you been writing?Ever since I was a kid, like most writers - when I wasn't reading Wuthering Heights or Gothic romances I was writing them - or at least starting them.  I wrote one complete book when I was in my early twenties on a two week break from work.  And then I didn't do much fiction for awhile  - I focused on blogging and some non-fiction books until I couldn't help myself. I actually wrote a  tween mystery just before the birth of my third child, and once that was done (and the baby slept through the night) I turned back to working on my fiction.What's your thoughts on self-publishing?It's a tremendous opportunity for writers but it t doesn't mean everyone should do it.  It's a n opportunity because it means you as a writer can get your work to the market and also make a decent living self publishing given then current royalty structure for e books.  But it's also a lot of work. In the old model there were these gatekeepers - these publishing houses and they were also bottlenecks.  They were so flooded with incoming manuscripts it could take years to get published - or even to get feedback on what was wrong.  And while they handled the formatting and distribution of your book for the most part you still had to do all of you own marketing.  Now the gatekeepers for publishing your book are gone - it's relatively easy to publish an ebook or a print book or hire some to do it.  But that doesn't mean you should skip all the critical steps like writing a great book, having it edited by both a beta group of readers and copy edited, plus you need it to be properly formatted for both ebook and paperback and then you need a great cover and then you need to market it.  So many of these technical steps can now be outsourced for a fee that I think if you’re willing to be both a publisher and a writer than self publishing is a viable route  - but it still means you need to work on writing books people want to read. Do you prefer to have an agent or work without one? Right now I am happy self publishing - I would rather work on finding a great set of beta readers/editors and cover designers, than worry about the agent part.
BLURB:
Excerpt Caitlyn Montgomery carefully let herself in the side door with the key hidden under the flowerpot. Police tape fluttered along the back of the house, the side that faced the water, but here, under the small overhang, there was nothing, only a chilly October breeze and the more distant sound of the water lapping at the rocky shore.The house was quiet, the silence of sadness. Her footsteps echoed across the polished wood flooring of the hallway as she crossed onto the marble tiles of the foyer. She knew it well, had almost grown up here, and had spent many nights here in the recent months, playing chess and sipping whisky with an old man.The door to Maxwell Randall’s study swung silently open. Caitlyn crossed the floor quickly, her sneakered feet sinking into the plush carpet. She came around to Maxwell’s desk, an ornate, obnoxious thing meant to look like something a Gilded Age Robber Baron would have owned. It was just as he’d left it. Empty. Maxwell hadn’t been one for bringing work home, she discovered. His desk was clear, a simple blotter aligned in the middle. A phone off to the right, a brass lamp off to the left. A pad of paper and a can of pens and pencils sat within reach. There was no computer, no planner or desk diary. She supposed if there had been one, the police would have taken it. Slowly, methodically, she leaned over and began to open the desk drawers. Nothing in the two large ones flanking the right, nor the left. She turned her attention to the middle drawer, the thin one. It stuck a bit, and she felt her heart flutter in anticipation. She knelt down, to get a better view. Caitlyn pushed a strand of her brown-black hair behind her ear and squinted in concentration as she carefully slid her hands toward the back of the narrow drawer.“What are you doing?” Her head jerked up, hitting the side of the drawer as she rose to her feet.“You?” Caitlyn said, surprise radiating through her.There was a pause. Caitlyn drew herself up to her full height and looked at Noah Randall, all six-feet-one of him, standing in the doorway.
Author Bio and Links:
Hi, I’m Andrea Stein an author, mother, wife and blogger and a certified mom-chauffeur. I have been scribbling stories for as long as I can remember, including my first adventure story, inspired by an obsession with Out of Africa (book, movie and biography) about a young girl stranded in Kenya. It was serial fiction handwritten, given to my sister, who couldn’t read my handwriting. That story dies after one installment, but the next year I got a word processor (not a computer, but an ACTUAL WORD PROCESSOR) that showed about twenty lines of text at a time. This was before laptops were widely available and this allowed me to be able to type to my heart’s content in the privacy of my own room. Which I did. I think I spent the time writing stories about my “frenemies” to amuse myself. I also listened to a lot of the Cure and New Wave music. I have since moved on to a happier place.
Even though I read lots of different types of books, I write romance novels with a twist. More like contemporary romance than romantic suspense (I don’t write about serial killers or FBI agents) but I usually like to include a puzzle or mystery for my hero and heroine to solve.
Rough Harbor is my second novel, set in a small New England town. Coming soon is Ivy Cottage, also set in a small New England town on a river.
 Links – Website:www.Andreasteinbooks.comhttp://www.facebook.com/AndreaSteinBooks
https://twitter.com/andreasteinbookspot.com/2012/12/virtual-book-tour-rough-harbor-by.html

Andrea will be awarding a $50 GC, winner's choice of Starbucks, Amazon or Walmart, to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour, and a $50 GC, winner's choice of Starbucks, Amazon or Walmart, to a randomly drawn host.
The tour dates can be found here:
http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2012/12/virtual-book-tour-rough-harbor-by.html

Today's Trend in Trilogies

I've always enjoyed trilogies and/or series. I like the continuity of the characters. But today's trends are driving me crazy.
 Since I got the Kindle for Christmas I've been lapping up the freebies like--if you're a cat--milk or--if you prefer adult beverages--champagne. The first one I read was by a well-known author. The first in the series was free, the second was 2.99 and the third was 8.99. I  liked it enough to download the second. I was reading along and it just ended. I kept clicking thinking there was another chapter. Nope. Book over.
I didn't buy the third.
I just finished another that's a first in the series. The last page, same thing, only it ends with a: To Be Continued. Again. What's that about?
When I read, I want all the loose ends tied up at the end of the story. If you want to throw out something to tantalize me to buy the next in the series I'm fine with that, but I want the story I'm reading to have some kind of closure, even if its just that segment of the series.
I got a little of that from Hunger Games but I was well and truly hooked so I kept buying the books. But if I'm not hooked, I'll walk away from it instead of buying the next in the series. It's just a little too blatant for me. I read to escape life's frustrations. Not to be more frustrated when I finish a book.What about you? Have you had more success in the trilogies you've read or have you ran into this also?